Edmonton Oilers new senior vice-president Scott Howson, left, new general manager Craig MacTavish and team president Kevin Lowe (right)attend a press conference in Edmonton, Alta., on Monday April 15, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

So, rest assured that the mea culpa to Oilers fans posted to the team’s website (www.edmontonoilers.com) was difficult for a proud, fiercely combative man like Lowe, the Oilers president of hockey operations.

It also was both necessary and unnecessary. Having alienated so many fans with his comments about “two types of fans” on the day he introduced Craig MacTavish as the replacement for fired GM Steve Tambellini on Monday, Lowe had little choice but to say he was sorry. Which he did, as follows:

“Yesterday was a day full of excitement and passion and emotion, and I must admit my emotion ran a little high, and I have a few things to say to our fans in particular to clarify,” Lowe said in a video posted on the Oilers website (www.edmontonoilers.com). “First of all, we are appreciative and are grateful to every one of our fans who cheer for us through good times and bad. We understand that we see many of our fans at Rexall Place, but we have hundreds of thousands of fans that never get to Rexall Place, and we appreciate each and every fan.
“I did not make that clear yesterday and if I offended anyone, I apologize.”

There’s no doubt he offended many, including plenty who attended the Oilers game on Tuesday night, a 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild, Edmonton’s six straight defeat.

A goodly portion of a sellout crowd at Rexall Place wasn’t around for the bitter end of that game, many of them having departed en masse as soon as the winning 50/50 number was announced midway through the third period.

To recap, in response to a question from me about how Lowe, MacTavish and Scott Howson, the newly installed senior vice-president of hockey operations, were the right hockey people to clean up the Oilers organizational mess (seven straight non-playoff seasons), when they were the very ones, who had left the mess there to begin with, Lowe said this:

“You know, fair question. We have two types of fans. We have paying customers and we have people that watch the game that we still care about.
“But certainly the people who go to the games and support, we spend a lot of time talking to them, delivering our message. I would, uh, think it’s safe to say that half the general managers in the National Hockey League would trade their roster for our roster right now.
“And in terms of the group that messed things up, you’re talking about the group that had the team one period away from winning tyhe Stanley Cup.”

The full transcript of Monday’s exchange is here, for those wanting to satisfy the hockey historian within.

The feisty approach was not out of character for Lowe. He famously had a running feud with Brian Burke, when he was GM of the Anaheim Ducks after Lowe signed Dustin Penner, then a restricted free agent, to an offer sheet that outraged Burke.

Lowe also turned a contract dispute with then-Oilers centre Mike Comrie into a nasty, personal battle. Just to cite a couple of examples of his natural tendency to lash out first and engage in civil dialogue later. He’s a fighter, makes few apologies for it, and has done well by his combative instincts.

That competitive streak is what helped make Lowe and the Oilers the Stanley Cup champions they were in the 1980s and in 1990. It can detract from his evident competence as a hockey executive now. But it’s part of the Kevin Lowe package, warts and all.

Actually, in proudly citing the Stanley Cups he has won, Lowe’s comments on Monday, were also par for the course for members of those Oilers teams.

To refresh, the riled-up Lowe reminded his interlocutor of that on Monday, as follows:

“And lastly I’ll say, there’s one other guy, I believe, in hockey today that’s still working in the game that has won more Stanley Cups than me (6).

This depends on how you count hockey people, I suppose. But, Larry Robinson, for one, an assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks, won six Cups as a player for the Montreal Canadiens, another as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, and two as an assistant coach there, for a total of nine.

Jacques Lemaire, who works as a special assignment coach with the New Jersey Devils organization, won eight Cups as a player in Montreal, another two as assistant GM with the Canadiens and one as head coach of the Devils. Which makes 11 Cups.

Scotty Bowman, a hockey advisor with the Chicago Blackhawks, won nine Cups as a coach with Montreal and Pittsburgh and three more as a front-office member with Pittsburgh and Chicago. For a total of 12.

So, it’s dicey to get carried away with how many Stanley Cups you have won. Chances are, someone else can either match you, or surpass your brilliance.

More to the point, neither Lowe nor MacTavish has won a Cup as a coach or manager. Winning Stanley Cups as a player does not necessarily translate into capturing hockey’s ultimate prize as a coach, GM or club president.

Safe to say, many in the Oilers fan base believe Lowe and MacTavish have had their time running the Oilers, thank-you.

Lowe the GM made some shrewd moves in 2005-06, adding Chris Pronger, Mike Peca, Dwayne Roloson et al, handing MacTavish the horses that, having squeaked into the playoffs, the capable coach rode all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Since then? Seven straight non-playoff performances.

Safe to say many fans define a change in leadership to be new faces, perhaps younger hockey people, different voices and ideas, a fresh vision. There are plenty of young, up-and-coming hockey executives out there who have proven themselves ready for the chance to build a championship team.

But here’s the deal. Part of the package with Oilers owner Daryl Katz is he wants to win the Stanley Cup with Lowe and MacTavish, his friends and colleagues, former hockey stars whose entourage a young Katz penetrated back in the ’80s.

So here we are.

MacTavish said many of the right things at the Monday news conference, among them that he is an “impatient man,” that the club must be bold, expose itself to risk in order to improve the team.

The long-suffering fans have had to be patient, in the extreme, here in Edmonton. In the early 2000s, the previous ownership told them, ‘Wait until after the 2004-05 lockout, we’re going to fix the economic system so we can compete on a level footing.’

For one season — and only one season — the Oilers did. And, as Lowe correctly stated, came within a single period of winning the Stanley Cup.

Since then, seven years of bad luck, bad hockey, bad memories.

And Lowe rubs salt in their wounds by saying there are two types of fans?

Oh, there was no question, Kevin Lowe had to apologize for that mistake. Good on him for having done so.

He should also know this: If the fans have been patient and forgiving up to now, like MacTavish, expect them to be increasingly impatient from here on out.

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